Walking on Ice

Last week we spent a few days visiting the great glaciers on the west coast. Before we arrived we had a visit from a little dude called the Kea - the world's only alpine parrot. He is known for stealing keys, socks and other items from tourists, so we were very careful in his presence...

After leaving the Kea behind we drove down south to visit the Franz Josef glacier. We decided to gamble on good weather and go on a helicopter trip to see the glacier from above and land on a high spot to explore it a bit by foot.
The helicopter flight, Anita's first, was very exciting. The pilot tried to give us a good view so he kept making sharp turns which made our stomachs go hiiiiiiii... Once on the glacier, a nice English guide took us for a 2 hour walk. Our luck continued and we had a sunny day on the ice so we could really appreciate it.




The next day we visited Fox glacier, Franz Josef's little cousin. So in two days we visited 2 of the 3

only glaciers in the world which end in a rain forest. Pretty cool, right?
We walked up through the bush looking at the glacier from the side, until we arrived at the end of the path. There we put on our crampons and followed our guide to the ice. The guide was walking in front, chopping the ice and creating little steps to make walking on it easier. We spent the entire day on Fox, looking for caves, holes and other interesting things before we made our way back to town and from there south towards Wanaka.